CHAPTER 26
“Did you seriously just sell your motorcycle?!” Horror registered on KJ’s face.
“Yep.” Kade grinned as he walked inside and shut the front door. He’d just handed over his title to the first guy that had answered his ad on Craigslist.
KJ looked at him like he might need a straitjacket. “Why?”
Instead of answering his question, he had one of his own. “Where’s your brother?”
“In the kitchen.” KJ’s expression made it clear he still expected an answer.
“Come on, I want to talk to you guys.”
Kade had been wanting to talk to the boys for a while now but Ali had been resistant. She was worried that they would be upset about things changing too fast. But, Kade didn’t want to keep secrets. He knew that even if either of the twins didn’t take the news well, they’d get over it. Plus, with what he had planned it would be a little hard to keep their relationship under wraps for much longer. And since Ali left for knitting club over an hour ago, his window of opportunity was closing.
“Your shoes,” Kade pointed out as he started heading to the kitchen.
Without a dirty look or any backtalk, KJ picked them up and set them on the bench that they’d designated home of all shoes. It was progress.
Over the past month, things had fallen into an easy routine. He knew it wouldn’t last forever, but for now the household was running like a well-oiled machine. Chores were divided between all four of them. He’d suggested having a chore lottery that they’d all play each week to find out what they got, but he’d been outvoted. Everyone just wanted to do what they liked the best, and thankfully there was no overlap.
Kade took care of dinners and the kitchen. Ali handled the laundry. Ricky was on vacuuming and dusting detail, and KJ was the bathroom man. And all four of them spent a weekend morning working on the yards.
They felt like a real family, and he wanted to cement that even further.
“How’s the arm?” Kade asked as he walked into the kitchen.
“Good.” Ricky looked up from his book and rolled his shoulder.
He’d gotten his cast off the day before. Afterwards they’d all gone out for ice cream. He’d known that they weren’t too old for ice cream. No one was too old for ice cream.
“Take a seat.” Kade motioned for KJ to sit beside his brother.
Reaching down, he rubbed his hand over Dumbass’s head as he lay at Ricky’s feet. Then he took a seat across from the twins. He rested his forearms on the table and clasped his hands together. “Okay, so I have something I want to talk to you about and it involves your aunt.”
KJ sat up straighter. “What’s wrong with Aunt Ali?”
“Nothing.” Kade quickly assured him. “Nothing is wrong with her, it’s just…I love her.”
“So do we.” KJ shot his brother a confused look.
“I think he means he loves her.” Ricky set his book down on the table, apparently this conversation warranted his full attention.
“Oh, yeah. We know that.” KJ shrugged. “We know you guys are like, together.”
“You do?” Kade had honestly thought they’d been covering their tracks pretty well.
“Yeah,” Ricky backed his brother’s statement up. “We saw you guys kissing in the backyard a couple days after my accident. And then, a bunch of times after that.”
Kade’s eyebrows rose. “A bunch of times?”
“Yep.” Ricky lifted his hand and started counting on his fingers. “There was the laundry room, the kitchen, the garage, the movies—”
“The rental shop,” KJ interjected.
“The rental shop, down at the lake, the—”
“Okay.” Kade lifted his hand to stop them from continuing.
KJ smirked. “Pretty much every time you two think no one’s watching.”
Kade felt like an idiot. He’d thought they were so slick. He hoped the boys hadn’t heard him sneaking in and out of Ali’s room, and if they did, he hoped they didn’t bring it up.
“Okay, well if you guys already know that then this will be easier. The reason I wanted to talk to you guys is I want to ask your aunt to marry me.”
Ricky and KJ looked at each other with a knowing expression.
“What?” Kade knew that twins had a special bond; that they could speak without actually talking, but he had no idea what they were saying.
Ricky turned back to him. “Dad knew it. He knew you two were going to get married. KJ and I didn’t believe him.”
“Your dad told you that?” He wondered if they’d seen the same video he had or if he’d actually talked to the boys about it.
“Yeah.” KJ nodded. “All the time. He said that Aunt Ali was the only person that could put you in your place and you were the only person that she’d trust to do the same for her.”
“Wow.” Even after seeing Patrick’s home video it was still strange for Kade to think of his friend not only approving of Kade and Ali but actually encouraging it. “What do you guys think? Are you guys okay with me asking your aunt to marry me?”
“Yeah.” Ricky picked his book back up, not seeming at all concerned about the development.
KJ, on the other hand, didn’t answer. He stared down at his fingers as they rolled a straw wrapper that was left over from the take-out they’d had last night.
“What about you, man?” Kade would’ve bet his entire life savings that Ali had been overreacting when she’d insisted on not telling the twins. But now that he was seeing KJ’s reaction, he was glad he hadn’t.
“What would you be then?”
Kade wasn’t sure he followed what the question was. “What do you mean?”
“Would you be our uncle, or our step-dad, or…”
“No.” Ricky shook his head. “Ali’s not our mom. Technically, he’d be our uncle.”
“We have to call you Uncle Kade?” KJ’s face looked like he’d just bit into a sour lemon.
“No.” Kade rushed to assure him. “You don’t have to call me that. Everything would be exactly the same, your aunt and I would just be married.”
“Cool.” KJ’s face relaxed and he appeared pacified by his answer. “And if you were married you could stop sneaking out of her room in the morning.”
Shit. Ali was going to kill him when she found out the boys knew the whole time. She was also going to kill him when she found out what he planned to do. Kade grinned. Patrick said that they were going to marry or kill each other, he was just really hoping it was the first option.